Eleventh month

011108

And the random surf site for today:
Sluggy chat zone

Return at last! Life is so completely different now, it's not worth commenting upon. I have become mildly embarrassed by how long it's been since i posted stuff here (a blog before blogs were cool?) so i begin again.

I found a word I've been looking for -- susurrus. Now i hope to find a list of onomatopoetic words in English. (There seem to be multitudes in Japanese.) My first step in my hunt is to write the Word Detective:


Dear Mr. Morris:

I was trying to find a word i remembered from a poem -- I knew it was
onomatopoetic, that it was often used to describe the soft sounds of
gentle waves, and that it was something like "sususiant." Eventually i
found "susurrant," but not before i discovered there were lists of
Japanese onomatopoetic words and, apparently, that Japanese has more
onomatopoetic words than any other languge. (Would that be more as a
larger fraction of the vocabulary or more in total number?)

So, to make a statement like that, someone had to make a list of
English onomatopoetic words. (Admittedly, that assumes the claim has
some grounding.) I'd love to have a list like that to just browse
through. Would you know of such a list? Some reference text that has
such a list? I recognize this is not a typical word-detective
question, but I'd appreciate the help.

Sincerely,

Phoenix Elaine


        

In my hunt I also found this interesting word:

        Crytoscopophilia (Cry-toe-skopp-o-Fill-y-eea) - courtesy of Bill Bryson via 
        Beverley Yakich: the condition you have when you harbour the urge to look through 
        the windows of homes you pass by; 
        

From here. I certainly experience this with an existential motivation that i have not the time to describe....

011109

And the random surf site for today:
Hey Mike spam from swan.ac.uk

I'm sick of this wierd spam -- I've received around one a day since the beginning of the month.

011115

And the random surf site for today:
Acts of Gord

Another random surf site for today:
The Virtual Observatory

Back from LA and a wonderful road trip.

Need to buy a new camera, though. Light meter on my Minolta X-370 seems shot. Features I really value in my old camera:

  • aperature priority automatic exposure and manual modes
  • depth of field preview
  • bulb setting
  • connection for a remote shutter release

I also value how rugged it is. From the reviews i've read today, the 370 seems to take abuse well. I'm a clumsy person, blundering into corners, dropping things, so rugged is important.

I think i need to review my camera again -- is it really a 370? I have bulb on the shutter speed & depth of field preview -- looks like those features got dropped at some point and returned in the 370s.

I think this might be my dream camera.

H O T L I S T

H O M E


H O M E

N O T E S






Last modified by PhoenixElaine on 08 Eleventh month 2001.
If you do write, put 'UNSPAM' in the subject line. Otherwise, i will filter the message as spam.